A Trader's Work Ethic
By Adrienne Toghraie

You have been in training all your life to condition yourself to a work ethic that you are now applying to trading. The question is: Is it working for you? By that I mean, are you effective in producing a profit that is in alignment with your system or methodology? If the answer is no, read on. While there can be at least a 100 different ways that you self-sabotage your efforts, trading too many hours or too few hours will definitely be one of them.

Is there a doctor in the house?

Brian was a top student all through school and went on to become a doctor. He prided himself on being the one who would work the longest hours and eventually was running a highly successful practice. Ten years into his business, Dr. Brian, who always appeared to his patients to be full of life, was suffering from exhaustion. When he was forced to cut back to an eight hour day, he discovered trading. Gradually, he extended his trading hours to his normal sixteen hours a day. Brian needed to learn that the same work ethic in becoming a successful doctor did not apply to becoming a successful trader.

How much time is optimal for trading?

The optimal time for trading is the time you are experiencing a high level of what I call vital-energy. This is when you are the most focused, “in the zone,” and less likely to sabotage your efforts. Trading requires a performance state of mind in order to be consistent, disciplined, and confident enough to ward-off feelings of possible loss.

Recipe for trading time work ethic:

1. Create as much high vital-energy time by making the best choices for your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual self.

2. Monitor your level of energy on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being your highest energy before the start of your trading day and after taking each trade.

3. If your energy is low for the day, then pull back on your risk or do not trade.

4. If your high-energy time is only 2 hours in the morning take a break and do some physical and relaxation exercises, eat a light portion of protein. Then get back in the game until your energy begins to drop.

5. If you cannot recover your energy in the afternoon or you can only muster up two hours of high-energy time, only trade two hours.

What is the point of earning profits in trading only to give them back?

If you want to have the right work ethic for trading, let go of your preconceived notions of what has worked for you in the past. If the amount of time you spend trading is not working for you now, you need to re-assess your work/time-strategy. Stick to your highest energy time in the day and more likely you will find that you will earn higher profits. Just like Brian, who has chosen to work a 2-hour trading day and 6-hours to practicing medicine, you may well find that less is more.

This article was originally published in A Lesson A Day For Traders, an ebook by Adrienne Toghraie and Antonia Weeks, and is reprinted here with their permission.

Since 1994, Adrienne Toghraie and Antonia Weeks have worked together on nine Trading on Target books, and one fiction book, Shaman, which will be out in 2008 as well as hundreds of articles. Antonia has been an indispensable part of Adrienne’s development as a writer, as well as the main editor in most of her writings.

As a trader’s coach, Adrienne has worked with many of the most successful traders in the industry. At the same time, she has turned some seriously struggling traders into success stories that are an inspiration to even the most jaded traders. She has been a speaker for most of the major trading conferences around the world and has been featured in the press, and on radio and television as one of the leaders in her field.

Antonia, whose experience includes being a stockbroker and partner in a commodity’s trading system development firm as well as a keynote speaker, has been an award-winning freelance writer, editor, and consultant for over two decades